Lacking Natural Simplicity

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:

• M.A.H. — GM

• C.A.H. — playing Force Caster.

• T.K.B. — playing Raum, a vaguely demonic creature.

• B.MC. — playing The Stygian Veil.

NPCs

• Quilik — Our Fin?

Actual Play

Note on Teleport Tube: Press Red Button to go to Atlantis, press Blue button to return.

Fin traitor went with Dr. D.

Before the V'Sori destroyed Atlantis it was in regular contact with the rest of the world. Since the comm systems haven't changed, our comms should work there.

Stygian Veil went first and was able to send and receive teststs. We have Atlantis-rated (underwater) flashlights!

When activated, the Teleport Tube ends up physically in Atlantis, while here in our hideout it is out of phase.

One building in the district — gold in color — seems unscathed. Stygian Veil notices at least one unexploded V'Sori bomb.

Killed 8 V'Sori: 2 fusion grenades each, V'Sori blaster rifle, special bandoleer for underwater work. Fin body suit could be modified, +2 armor $15000 to buy. 10 lb & humanoid flesh. [???]

Both medallions (the one we brought with us and the one Raum found [???] along with some scrolls in a ruin) both glow slightly.

8 more V'Sori killed.

The first V'Sori scroll said V'Sori started colony long ago on [V'Sori word for Earth] at [V'Sori word for Atlantis] under water because of large reptiles — eventually contact with [Atlantis] was lost. When they came back to retake [Atlantis] the resulting fight with colonists who evolved into Atlantians killed off the dinosaurs as a side effect (not quite nuclear winter, but close).

The second V'Sori scroll had V'Sori descriptions of ritual.

Force Caster puts on medallion and skips into temple: 2 stairwells going down. He is attacked by and damages a swarm of insane ghosts. Raum pulls him out while wearing the other medallion. We looked for and found the high priest's medallion in another ruin. Stygian Veil went in, killed swarm, rest came in, left our Fin on guard outside.

Stygian Veil telekinetically picks up the crown. Mad Atlantean steps out and says “You must die for stealing that crown!” We talk him down by telling him we're working for folks who want to get the crown back to the Atlantean King. He agrees to come with us. We ask if there is anything useful besides the crown we can take back to help defeat the V'Sori and he suggests the sacred library. We put it in the portable hole. He recognizes the portable hole as the “Satchel of the Ocean”, a powerful Atlantean artifact.

The Mad Atlantean Priest's name is Aden.

Our merc says some other Fins attached a timer to the big bomb: 30 seconds (5 rounds) and counting down. He books it back to the Teleport Tube.

So do we, and we escape before the bomb explodes.

There is a Legend that a Legions of Atlantean Warriors went into deep sleep for Atlantis's hour of need, to be summoned by the rightful Atlantean King only, with the crown of Atlantis.

We scan in the scrolls, working all night, while the Mad Atlantean Priest sleeps.

The Transporter Tube was already phased out, so the teleporter still works.

100K credits each from Dr D!

Send scrolls, crown, and Mad Atlantean priest to Dr. D with a minion we know is his.

A few hours later all comm links blink and Frank says “there's a worldwide broadcast coming in!” It is Dr. D: he is an Atlantean — he is King Merrous [spelling [???]], the greatest hero of all. He is backed by the Neptune Guard (including Mechnoman (formerly the infamous Anvil), Hydra, and others). He has infiltrated all evil organizations and super villains.

We check, and he has deactivated the Transporter Tube — it was remote powered. (We got him the power plant.) We remove a few essential bits so it won't work and hide it someplace.

We move all our financial assets before Dr. D can confiscate them and set up new financial accounts, communications, and computer accounts.

Vince calls to tell us that Ricky Six-Fingers put out a hit on us.

The Fin's code of honor is to follow their boss as long as their boss is alive and paying, so our Fin is with us as long as we pay him.

We move all our stuff, including out Ants, to the caves under the Chinese place. The owner and his son don't know about the caves, and have never seen us coming and going. We have room to expand. The caves are connected to a network of caves.

The whole planet is engulfed in chaos: Atlantean vessels rising from the sea, V'Sori ships swarming about, etc.

Encrypted message from Mr. Fixit — for the moment he's willing to play along with our suggestion to spy on Dr. D for us, but he's an engineer, not a fighter.

Aftermath

We each got +5 XP.

Raum has an extra bennie for something.

Reflections

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”